Customer 2020

Leaders (4%) provide a well-balanced customer experience, fulfilling user needs at specific points in the path to purchase and catering to those who prefer using self-service features and those relying on assisted channels. Brands in this category round out their digital customer service strategies with searchable FAQs and comprehensive live chat capabilities such as personalized styling advice. Leader brands are concentrated in the beauty, specialty retail and activewear sectors.

Assisted Channels Oriented

Assisted Channels Oriented (30%) brands concentrate their efforts in assisted channels, preferring to interact with users over leaving them to their own devices. These brands highlight their live chat capabilities and are vigilant in responding to users on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Many department stores fall under this category.

Laggards (53%) have the basic customer service building blocks such as Contact Us pages and FAQs but fail to go the extra mile in optimizing them. Over half of all analyzed brands fall under this category, signalling the relative immaturity of digital customer service strategies.

Average

Average Line

2020, n=118 Brands

Key

Leaders

Leaders (4%) provide a well-balanced customer experience, fulfilling user needs at specific points in the path to purchase and catering to those who prefer using self-service features and those relying on assisted channels. Brands in this category round out their digital customer service strategies with searchable FAQs and comprehensive live chat capabilities such as personalized styling advice. Leader brands are concentrated in the beauty, specialty retail and activewear sectors.

Assisted Channels Oriented

Assisted Channels Oriented (30%) brands concentrate their efforts in assisted channels, preferring to interact with users over leaving them to their own devices. These brands highlight their live chat capabilities and are vigilant in responding to users on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Many department stores fall under this category.

Laggards (53%) have the basic customer service building blocks such as Contact Us pages and FAQs but fail to go the extra mile in optimizing them. Over half of all analyzed brands fall under this category, signalling the relative immaturity of digital customer service strategies.

Average

Average Line

Key

Leaders

Leaders (4%) provide a well-balanced customer experience, fulfilling user needs at specific points in the path to purchase and catering to those who prefer using self-service features and those relying on assisted channels. Brands in this category round out their digital customer service strategies with searchable FAQs and comprehensive live chat capabilities such as personalized styling advice. Leader brands are concentrated in the beauty, specialty retail and activewear sectors.

Assisted Channels Oriented

Assisted Channels Oriented (30%) brands concentrate their efforts in assisted channels, preferring to interact with users over leaving them to their own devices. These brands highlight their live chat capabilities and are vigilant in responding to users on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Many department stores fall under this category.

Laggards (53%) have the basic customer service building blocks such as Contact Us pages and FAQs but fail to go the extra mile in optimizing them. Over half of all analyzed brands fall under this category, signalling the relative immaturity of digital customer service strategies.

Average

Average Line

As an update to last year’s methodology, Gartner benchmarked brands based on their digital customer service strategies. This includes adoption of self-service features, such as FAQ pages and chatbots, versus assisted channels, like live chat and Twitter usage. This year’s 118 brands were then plotted on a two-dimensional grid into one of four distinct quadrants: Leaders, Hand Holders, Set It and Forget It or Laggards.